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Louisville picking up pace in smaller spaces, with 3 new business openings

By John Aguilar Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
12/09/2012 02:00:00 PM MST

Updated:
12/09/2012 02:40:39 PM MST

New employee Melissa Jeter, right, learns how to use the Le Peep cash register as Anthony Brown, left, Kristine Brown and Kristi Whonsetler look on during training at the new Louisville restaurant on Friday. The eatery is one of several smaller businesses opening on the east side of the city.
(
CLIFF GRASSMICK
)

Louisville's sales tax revenues

2008: $9.4 million

2009: $9.1 million

2010: $8.8 million

2011: $9.2 million

2012: $7.9 million (through October)

Source: City of Louisville

LOUISVILLE -- As this city continues to wrestle with how to fill its empty big box spaces, smaller vacant retail spots on the west side of town have quietly been attracting suitors with plans to bring them back to life.

A new Le Peep eatery is set to open next week in the building at the corner of Cherry Street and McCaslin Boulevard that once housed a KFC/A&W restaurant. A few feet away, a 7-Eleven -- shuttered for half a year after a quarter-century in business -- will transform into an Elevations Credit Union. Across McCaslin, the old Checkers auto parts store is being turned into a scrapbooking shop.

Louisville economic development director Aaron DeJong said the recession had the bittersweet effect of bringing to an end some struggling businesses while opening doors for new ones.

"There are still opportunities for small businesses to be successful," he said. "It's good to see the revitalization happening there."

By there, DeJong means Louisville's Centennial Valley, which often gets overshadowed by the success stories coming out of the city's historic downtown.

But Louisville's western retail sector, which runs up and down McCaslin Boulevard and clusters around Dillon Road, is by far the city's most robust commercial engine. Near the interchange of U.S. 36 and McCaslin, the city takes in more than a third of its sales tax revenue -- with $257,000 collected in October.

By contrast, downtown Louisville contributed $54,000 to city coffers in the same month.

Sarah Jarman, Le Peep's owner, said she loves the location of her new restaurant at 390 S. McCaslin Blvd. Unlike downtown, it has plenty of close-in parking and a largely unobstructed view to the west.

"We're going to be able to put in a big patio with a view of the Flatirons," she said.

And Le Peep will fill an underserved need for those who can't get enough breakfast fare -- omelets, skillets and all variety of flapjacks -- even if the clock is screaming lunch, Jarman said. With 98 seats, she'll be able to pack them in.

"Louisville needed another breakfast restaurant (besides the Huckleberry)," she said. "One is not enough. They needed one on this side of town."

Shelley Angell, executive director of the Louisville Chamber of Commerce, said Le Peep and Elevations Credit Union will not only occupy two buildings that sat empty on one of the city's prominent corners, but they should goose business at the surrounding Centennial Center shopping center, which has a few vacant storefronts.

"It will help that whole shopping center," she said. "It doesn't just benefit themselves."

But DeJong knows that three small retail spaces don't make up for the loss of Sam's Club, Safeway and Big Lots, all of which closed down in the last two to three years. He continues to hope to find a buyer for Sam's, but at 129,000 square feet and in an already saturated big box environment, it's not an easy sell.

"The pool of suitors there is very small," he said.

Big Lots, which closed early this year, remains empty at Louisville Plaza. DeJong said the 30,000-square-foot space is compromised by the aging strip mall in which it sits. Besides a major overhaul by the King Soopers at the east end of the shopping center earlier this year, DeJong said Louisville Plaza hasn't changed a whole lot since it was first built.

"The rest hasn't seen a lot of investment in the last couple of decades," he said.

One recent bright spot in the city's large-format retail picture: An Alfalfa's Market-anchored apartment complex was approved by the City Council last month. Plans call for it to go in at the site of a 54,000-square-foot Safeway that shut its doors on South Boulder Road more than two years ago.

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